1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to in-line roller skates and more particularly to an improved wheel for use with in-line roller skates.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, in-line skating has become enormously popular. Such skates include a plurality of wheels mounted for rotation in a common plane. The axles of the wheels are mounted in parallel spaced-apart alignment.
Traditionally, in-line skate wheels include a rigid cylindrical plastic hub through which axles pass. Polyurethane is then molded onto the outer cylindrical surface of the hub to form a complete wheel. An example of such a construction is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,567,019 to Raza et al dated Oct. 22, 1996.
Polyurethane is a very dense material having a density of about 1.02 to 1.2 grams per cubic centimeter. Not uncommonly, a single in-line skate may have four wheels such that a pair of skates will have eight wheels. Accordingly, the wheels can comprise a significant part of the weight of the skate.
To improve comfort and performance of skates, weight reduction is an important goal of in-line skate design. Due to the significant percentage of a skate's weight associated with the wheels, weight reduction of wheels is desirable. Also, it is desirable to maintain the performance of the wheels including bounce, rolling resistance and rebound action.
One design which results in reduced weight of the wheel is to provide a flexible hollow tube in the form of a ring surrounding the hub. A polyurethane tire is molded onto the hub surrounding the hollow tube. Since the tube is hollow, the air volume of the tube is at a substantially lower density than the molded polyurethane resulting in reduced weight loss of the wheel. However, such a design is unsightly. Also, the design is not sufficiently flexible to permit modification of the performance by varying the design parameters. It is an object of the present invention to provide an enhanced wheel design with reduced weight, acceptable performance, attractive appearance and susceptible of selective modification to selectively adjust performance of the wheel.